Stop procrastinating: Do something today!

Lucy Dong

By Lucy Dong
SYLP student

What is procrastination? You can say that it’s just a bad habit, like biting your nails.

I think procrastination means lying, and this includes lying to your parents, your teachers, and to yourself.

Have you ever thought to yourself, “I have plenty of time before that assignment is due” or “I work better under pressure?”

It is estimated that 95 percent of people are prone to procrastinate. Why do people procrastinate? It could be that they do not feel confident about the task, so they make up excuses to avoid it.

Maybe the job is difficult, time consuming, or something they lack knowledge in.

Because procrastination causes guilt, people feel the need to justify it, so they lie. “I am not in the mood for this, and I must be in the right mood to do this task well.”

The more you lie, the more comfortable you are with it, and the more you believe in your own lies. This develops into a destructive cycle.

Procrastination is also harmful to your health. Built up stress can lead to low morale and depression as well as a weak immune system. Staying up late to finish a task you put off will deprive your body of critical sleep.

You are probably wondering how you can overcome procrastination. First off, you need to stop lying to yourself.

You are not going to have any more time tomorrow than you have today, so do it now!

As much as you want to evade that big project, force yourself through it. It is much easier to continue once you have started. Break it down into smaller steps or subtasks to make it less overwhelming, and try devoting 20 minutes at a time solely to the task at hand.

You can also avoid procrastination by overestimating the time for each subtask. Set goals for yourself. This will encourage you to finish the task ahead of time and give you a sense of accomplishment.

Most importantly, stop procrastinating on stopping procrastination! ♦

Lucy Dong can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

(The stories in this issue are written by SYLP students, not Northwest Asian Weekly staff.  Opinions herein do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of the newspaper.)